Students, educators and lawmakers plan to gather at the Georgia Capitol to protest legislative proposals that would ban illegal immigrant students from state colleges and universities.

The ACLU of Georgia, the Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance and the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights oppose Senate Bill 458.

To learn more about this story, please click here.

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Are you an illegal immigrant student? Do you wish to learn what your options are in order to change your immigration status? Call Amadu Edward Swaray today to learn what options you may have that you have not considered. We look forward to assisting you with your immigration case.

All information taken from USCIS’s news release.  For more information, please click on the link at left.

Agency kicks off effort to ensure that immigration pathways for foreign entrepreneurs are clear and consistent, and better reflect today’s business realities

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Alejandro Mayorkas hosted an Information Summit today at the NASA Research Park in Moffett Field, Calif., to launch the USCIS Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIR) Initiative.

“Today USCIS gained invaluable insights from prominent entrepreneurs and industry leaders on immigration issues critical to our nation’s economic prosperity,” said Director Mayorkas. “The introduction of expert views from the private and public sectors will help us ensure that our policies and processes fully realize the immigration laws’ potential to grow our economy and create American jobs.”

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Are you an entrepreneur in need of analyzing your options?  Please give Ed Swaray a call today at 763-549-0670 and let him inform you of all options available to you.

All information below taken from this link.   Please click on the underlined text at left for more information.

The H-2B non-agricultural temporary worker program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary non-agricultural jobs.

To qualify for H-2B nonimmigrant classification:

• The employer must establish that its need for the prospective worker’s services or labor is temporary, regardless of whether the underlying job can be described as permanent or temporary. The employer’s need is considered temporary if it is a one-time occurrence, a seasonal need, a peak-load need, or an intermittent need.

• The employer must demonstrate that there are not sufficient U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified, and available to do the temporary work.

• The employer must show that the employment of H-2B workers will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.

• Generally, a single, valid temporary labor certification from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), or, in the case where the workers will be employed on Guam, from the Governor of Guam, must be submitted with the H-2B petition. (Exception: an employer is not required to submit a temporary labor certification with its petition if it is requesting H-2B employment in a position for which the DOL does not require the filing of a temporary labor certification application).

Please note:  There are exemptions to the cap.  Persons under the following categories do not count toward the H-2B cap:

1. Any existing H-2B workers (or their spouses and children) who extends his/her stay;

2.  Any fish roe processors, fish roe technicians, or supervisors of fish roe processing; or

3.  Workers performing labor in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and/or Guam.

Any unused/non-issued visas that remain at the end of the first half of the year are made available to employers seeking to hire such temporary non-immigrant workers during the second half of the year.

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Have questions as to how we can help you meet your H-2B needs?  Please call Ed Swaray today at 763-549-0670 and bring us your concerns.

A controversial program that lets U.S. immigration officials check the citizenship status of people who have been arrested is being expanded to include Baltimore despite objections from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and immigrant advocates.

The Secure Communities program, which began in 2008 and is being phased in nationwide, lets federal immigration officials review fingerprints collected when people are booked. The review will start in Baltimore and Montgomery County on Wednesday, according to a Department of Homeland Security letter obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

To read more about the Secure Communities Program and its expected effects in the city of Baltimore, please click here.

All information below taken from the OPA News Release of February 10, 2012

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The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration and its Wage and Hour Division today announced a final rule to improve the H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker program. The rule, to be published in the Feb. 21 edition of the Federal Register, includes changes to several aspects of the program to ensure that U.S. workers receive greater access to jobs and strengthens worker protections.

The final rule creates a national registry for all H-2B job postings and increases the amount of time during which U.S. workers must be recruited. The rule also requires the rehiring of former employees when available.

In addition, H-2B program benefits such as transportation costs and wages will be extended to U.S. workers performing substantially the same work as H-2B workers. Worker protections also will be strengthened by enhanced transparency throughout the employment process.

The rule will be effective on April 23.

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For additional information, please see the following links:

http://s.dol.gov/MZ.

Materials, including fact sheets, are available at http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/h-2b.cfm and http://www.dol.gov/whd/immigration/H2BFinalRule/index.htm.